Y ou can see the moment the fire started at Birch by Romeo Lane in a widely circulated viral video. A Kazakh performer danced to “ Mehbooba O Mehbooba ”, as fireworks went off all around her, pyrotechnics for the Saturday night crew. A bright burst of sparks catches what appears to be a thatched roof above the DJ booth, causing the orchestra and the dancer to scramble. An inebriated patron wisecracks at the dancer: “ Aapne toh aag laga di! ” (You’ve set fire to the stage.)

The mood must have been decidedly less cheerful two levels below. Nineteen-year-old Binod Mahto isn’t in the video; neither is his brother Pradeep (24) nor Mohit Munda (18). The three men—from the same Jharkhand village —were in the establishment’s basement kitchen with no fire exits, along with 17 other kitchen

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